Blood Pressure Monitor
& Pulse Oximeter
We use both an automated blood pressure monitor (seen here at left ) and the usual manual blood pressure cuff that most people are familiar with.
The automated blood pressure cuff, properly known as a "sphygmomanometer", frees us to be doing something else while a patient's blood pressure and pulse are being taken.
This model also has a "pulse oximeter" built in. This is a device that fits over a patients finger and measures the amount of oxygen in the blood stream. It does this by transmitting near red and infra-red light through the capillary bed of the fingernail. The receiving side measures the amount of light that makes it through and calculates the patient's oxygen saturation, or "O2-Sat" as we call it.
A normal, healthy person should have an O2 Sat of 95 to 98%.
